How Online Auctions Can Help A House Clearing

Imagine a home full of wonderful memories and meaningful experiences. Now imagine moving all the items supporting those memories and experiences. If you feel like this could be an overwhelming and stressful process, you are not alone. For many people downsizing, relocating or managing an estate, questions such as, “what do I do with all the stuff I no longer need or want?”, “how can I regain some of the costs of my valuable items?” and “how do I know the value of my belongings?” appear frequently.

Enter MaxSold, an online auction service that manages the sale of your items online.

What is MaxSold?

Founded in 1956 to meet the needs of people clearing a house, MaxSold manages the online sale of any items you no longer want or need. By providing an online portal for each individual sale, MaxSold takes away the stress of having to deal with hundreds of individual buyers over e-mail, phone and in-person like when you list things with Craigslist, Kijiji, Facebook, etc.  With MaxSold, you deal with one professional team from start to finish.

MaxSold says, “MaxSold believes that sellers deserve the transparency, ease of use, and profitability, and sellers should not have to be a technology expert, marketing expert or logistics expert in order to sell their goods.”

Not only is MaxSold a viable option for sellers, buyers also have online access to unique items in specific geographic locations that come from one home – from vintage to modern, furniture to figurines. The hope is that buyers will cherish their new treasures or give the items a new life by re-purposing or up-cycling.

The Managed Model

MaxSold has two sale models for sellers to choose from. The Managed model means MaxSold professionals take care of all photography, item cataloging, and supervising pickups. Fees are 30% + $700.

The Seller Managed Model

The Seller Managed model means that the seller is responsible for photographing, cataloging, and supervising pickup. Marketing is included and there are no up-front fees. The fee is the greater of $300 or 30%.

In both models, the MaxSold team is responsible for the auction hosting, online advertising, local marketing, notification to buyers, and collection of payments.  MaxSold will market your items and notify buyers (collectors, antique dealers, resellers and people looking for things to buy.

Once you decide which model you will be using, sellers or the Simply Home Downsizing team create “lots” of items to sell. These could be single-items (i.e. dining room table) or a collection of items that make sense being sold together (i.e. crock pot with a set of dishes). The goal is to maximize online sales by putting valuable or desirable items in different lots. Once the lots are created, photographs are taken and uploaded through the MaxSold cataloguing app to your unique seller’s page on the MaxSold website. The sale is launched (a 2-week period is suggested) and potential buyers begin to bid online.

Will Your Auction Actually Be Seen? Yes!

MaxSold advertises it’s online auctions through online classifieds, paid Facebook ads, social media platforms, estate sale websites, and more. According to their website, each MaxSold auction attracts between 10-50% new bidders who learned about it through targeted social media advertising and posts on Craigslist, Kijiji, Ebay, Auctionzip, Estatesales.net/org and more.

When a bidder registers and bids for an item in an auction, they submit their credit card information. Upon the auction close date, all successful bidders are notified, invoiced and their credit cards are processed. Taxes are collected and processed by MaxSold. Along with payment in the form of a single cheque or direct deposit, sellers will receive a full report of every item, how much it sold for, and any commission taken.

So how many items should you have? Based on the commission of 30%, having at least 50 lots makes the best sense – economically and timewise. Again, lots can include all kinds of home items – think garden tools, oil paintings, kids LEGO, or an entire bedroom set.

Benefits and Challenges of MaxSold

Benefits:

• Quick turnaround (2 weeks) to sell decades of items
• Ability to sell not just fine china, art and antiques, but everyday household items
• Access to the “Quick-Worth finder” which shows every past item sold and its price
• Minimum commissions that allow the sale of any items without judgement
• Full view of the sale from start-to-finish, including detailed day-to-day reporting
• Easy set-up, management, fee distribution, and turnaround for sellers and buyers

Challenges:

• Finding time to sort through and catalogue your items into lots (Simply Home Downsizing can help!)
• You cannot set a minimum bid on any item/lot – each lot starts at $1
• Items cannot be removed from an auction once bidding has begun
• You must accept the amount that your lot sells for – once an auction is set up, all sales are final
• Unsold items are the seller’s responsibility. They can be given away or sold as-is to buyers coming to pick-up their paid items. (MaxSold claims their sell rate is nearly 100%.)

So how can you calculate the value of your crystal vases? Teak dinette set? Pinball machine? Record collection? Although there is no way to predict what an item will sell for, factors such as rarity, condition, and whether or not something is collectible and/or has a certificate of authenticity matter. MaxSold has a “Quick-Worth finder” which allows sellers to see every item that has been sold and for what price. This helps sellers gauge the value of their items.

If you are looking for a way to clear out a house quickly and thoroughly, while recouping the cost of some of your valuables, MaxSold is a viable option. At Simply Home Downsizing, we assist clients sorting and categorizing their items for a MaxSold online sale, often resulting in an easy-to-manage and positive experience for all involved. Please connect with us to learn more.